Consolidation seen ahead of Asean meet

SHARE prices are expected to consolidate in the next two weeks with investors expected to seek direction from third quarter earnings reports, this Thursday’s Monetary Board meeting and the conduct of the upcoming Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Summit.

“The next two weeks [will]have a lot of information to digest,” IB Gimenez Securities, Inc. research head Joylin Telagen said.

Aside from the ongoing earnings season, the Monetary Board will be meeting this Thursday to discuss policy settings while the Philippines will be hosting the Asean Summit and related events beginning November 10 up to the 14th.

“So I think the index will just consolidate over the next two weeks and the result of the said events will determine the market direction,” Telagen added.

Chris Mangun, research head at Eagle Equities, Inc., said that he expected the market to remain trading within the 8,300 level.

“This is particularly positive for the market as this is base building … which prepares the market for a big move,” he said. “Overall my medium-term outlook is still very positive.”

The stock market briefly touched the 8,600 level on Friday, a day after closing in 8,500 territory for the first time, but succumbed to profit-taking to close well below historic highs.

The bellwether Philippine Stock Exchange index hit a new all-time intraday high of 8,605.15, looking to eclipse Thursday’s record close of 8,516.02, but then shed 139.89 points or 1.64 percent to end the day at 8,376.13.

The wider All Shares dropped 1.17 percent or 58.07 points to settle at 4,898.90.